The morphological and biochemical analysis of hair roots will be used as a sensitive criteria for the diagnosis of protein malnutrition in monkeys with experimental protein malnutrition and these techniques will be applied to a group of 1,200 human pregnant females to be followed serially during their pregnancies. The measures of protein malnutrition determined by this analysis will be correlated with the outcome of pregnancy for the mother and the fetus. The morphological techniques to be used in examining hairs include the anagen/telogen ratio, the hairs with present root sheaths, the diameter of the hair bulb, the amount of DNA and protein in the hair bulb, quantitative and qualitative differences in the high and low sulfur containing structural proteins of the hair bulbs, and the transamidase activity of the hair bulbs. The in vitro synthesis of protein and nucleic acids will be measured in the hair bulbs as well. The pregnant women will be sampled between the 12-16 week of pregnancy, the 24-28 week of pregnancy, and at the 36th week of pregnancy and their degree of nutrition, parity, race, smoking habits, weight gain will be determined. The outcome of pregnancy in terms of morbidity, mortality, birthweight, gestational age of children, placental weight, placental DNA and placental protein will be measured and the correlation of these parameters with protein nutrition determined.